Oil & Gas Legal Services

For more than 80 years, Clark Hill’s Oil & Gas Team has counseled clients on virtually every type of transaction, dispute, and administrative matter in the energy industry. Our intimate knowledge of this highly cyclical and heavily regulated industry enables us to develop specific solutions for the challenges facing our domestic and international clients, including:

Transactional - Clark Hill’s transactional lawyers work with clients on mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures of interests, including the financing of such transactions, in all of the major oil and gas-producing states and domestic offshore fields.  Additionally, our attorneys handle upstream transactional matters including mineral sales and transfers, oil and gas leasing, operating agreements, surface use agreements, pipeline easements and water use agreements.

Litigation – Since 1939, Clark Hill attorneys have resolved disputes for energy companies and stakeholders in energy companies through mediation, arbitration, trial, negotiated settlement, and appeal.

Finance & Lending - Our attorneys have participated in arranging and documenting private equity and commercial financing for billions of dollars of oilfield transactions. 

Environmental - Our environmental attorneys have many decades of counseling and litigation experience with substantive knowledge in all areas of environmental law. 

Admiralty & Maritime - With many decades of experience in admiralty and maritime law, our lawyers represent many of the world’s largest companies in the maritime industry in the Gulf of Mexico and around the globe.

Transportation - Clark Hill’s transportation lawyers advise our energy clients on local and national ground and rail transportation issues, and are active in Washington, D.C. in connection with related federal legislation and rule making. 

Tax - Clark Hill has significant experience in business tax planning for its energy clients, including the taxation of corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, royalty trusts, publicly traded partnerships, and other entities and their owners or beneficiaries.

Securities - Our securities attorneys assist public and private clients with all types of equity and capital raising transactions, including public and private offerings of equity and debt securities.

Intellectual Property - Clark Hill’s IP team represents a cross-section of public and privately held oil and gas industry clients, including global exploration and production companies, worldwide providers of oilfield services, onshore and offshore companies providing support to the energy industry, and pipeline companies.

Labor & Employment - Risk prevention is of paramount importance for employers, and the services our labor and employment team provide revolve around this philosophy. Clark Hill lawyers routinely handle all matters related to labor and employment issues including employment and severance agreements, non-compete agreements, non-disclosure and trade secret protections, and litigation.

Business Restructuring - Whether a business’s need for restructuring arises from—or in anticipation of—growth, merger and acquisition activity, tax needs, or financial problems, Clark Hill attorneys provide seasoned advice regarding the reformation of business structures.

Clark Hill’s Oil & Gas Team has worked in virtually all major producing areas throughout the U.S., including offshore. We represent several of the world’s largest publicly-held energy companies and their privately-held entrepreneurial counterparts; our client roster includes oil field service companies across the entire energy spectrum, exploration and production companies, manufacturing companies, marine, road, and rail transportation companies and logistics, pipeline, and storage companies.

We are able to provide cross-border legal services to companies with business interests in Mexico and the United States. Our cross-border energy experience includes:

• corporate and international project finance;
• capital markets;
• securitization;
• bankruptcy and workout matters;
• litigation and dispute resolution (including multi-jurisdictional litigation);
• transportation and logistics matters;
• immigration issues; and
• customs and trade regulations.